Unsuspecting
by saku642734
Summary: I guess those figurative skeletons in your closet aren't so figurative anymore. (Written for round 6 of the quidditch league fanfiction competition season 6)


**This story is based on Harry Potter written by J.K. Rowling**

 **A/N: This story is being written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition season 6.**

 **Round 6- Month by Month**

 **Beater 1-** **September: Madame Chang, Hermione Granger, Garrick Ollivander, Quirinus Quirrell.** **Team: Wasps**

 **Prompts- 1. (Dialogue) "If I hear anyone say 'Happy Birthday,' one more time…"**

 **3\. (Word) Refreshed**

* * *

I started out that morning with a wide stretch of my arms, as is routine. I went through the rest of my routine faster than usual. For once, this wasn't because of work or other extra activities I'd picked up. Today, I had Harry's surprise Birthday party to plan.

After I finished, I decided to start cleaning the house. I started with the backyard, made my way through the house, and ended at the kitchen. It only took a few well placed banishing charms and _Tergeo's_ to get the job done.

As a final step, I went through the pantry were I kept food and potions ingredients. Both were separated to prevent contamination of the food or potential potions. As a sort of side job or hobby, I had started doing potions research and development. This of course, required me to keep all of my ingredients fresh and in stock.

I went through every jar, tossing out items that had gone bad and replenishing supplies. Most of the food I kept in there was dried non-perishables, so with that out of the way I turned to the far corner.

In the corner, I kept some things I had been studying, jotting down reactions to certain substances. By that time they were starting to rot and lose their freshness, causing the odor to permeate the immediate area.

This odor caused by the experiments had been one of the reasons why Ronald and I argued so often when he was staying here. Ultimately, he had to go, I wasn't going to let him get in between me and my research.

As I was setting up the eating area in the backyard, I heard a knock on the door. I spelled the rest of the furniture to set itself up while I checked the door.

Looks like there was another thing for me to take care of.

* * *

After dealing with a Muggle encyclopedia salesman, I went to start in the kitchen.

I got all of the ingredients together and started cooking for the party. Well, cooking is kind of a stretch since I spelled all of the dishes to cook themselves, but I guess it still counts.

While the food cooked I started decorating, starting with the living room. That was when I heard another knock at the door.

I glanced at the clock and wondered who it could be. It was just after noon which was too early for guests to start showing up. That left the possibility of the cake I ordered being delivered.

I opened the door and it was, in fact, not a cake.

"Spare some food?" it was a Muggle trembling where he stood on my doorstep, dressed in dirty rags, and looking dangerously thin.

I sighed, this was going to take time away from preparations. I supposed it couldn't be helped, it was nearly impossible to turn the poor man away. Besides he would prove himself helpful.

I gestured for him to come inside. "Come in, and I'll brew us some tea."

* * *

A few hours later, everything was ready and people had started showing up to surprise Harry.

I just finished setting out the food on the buffet table, when I felt a tap on the shoulder. Neville's apologetic face came into view as I turned my head.

He smiled sheepishly. "Just wanted to let you know the snack bowls are almost empty." Neville ruffled his own hair. "It's not really urgent, I guess some people are amazed by Muggle crisps."

I sighed and smiled at him. "I hope Arthur wasn't the only one eating them."

Neville chuckled and shook his head. "You don't need to worry about it. You keep the snacks in the pantry right? I'll take care of it."

I waved him away. "No, no, I'll take care of it, thanks."

I made my way to the pantry and opened the door, absentmindedly casting a freshening charm to keep the smell at bay. I grabbed the bags of crisps and went back to the snack table.

* * *

I went around and saw to everyone's needs as it got closer to the time Harry was supposed to show up.

Ginny was no longer able to delay and sent her _Patronus_ ahead to warn us.

I raised my voice so that it carried throughout the house. "Get to your places everyone, he's on his way!"

A minute later, Ginny opened the front door with Harry trailing behind.

Harry walked in while he spoke to Ginny. "Come on, this is weird right? When have we ever used the front door when visiting?"

Before he could get two feet from the door all of us jumped up and screamed, "surprise!"

It's a good thing that Harry was able to stop himself from launching curses at us, given how badly we startled him.

As the initial excitement died down, Harry was passed around in the crowd of well wishers.

By the time he got to me he just groaned and held up a hand. "If I hear anyone say 'Happy Birthday' one more time…"

I chuckled at his misfortune and handed him a bottle of water from the table. "Fine, fine, drink this. It'll make you feel better."

Harry snatched the bottle and chugged at least half of it.

I smiled and asked, "how do you feel now?"

Harry let out an extremely dramatic exhale. "Refreshed."

We stood there and giggled at each other for a moment before Harry asked, "Where's Ron? I didn't see him around."

I hadn't realized until he said something. I glanced around the room and found that Ronald was definitely not there. "I remember inviting him, he must not have been able to make it."

Harry gave a small smile. "Yeah, that's probably it."

I gave him a pat on the back before pushing him back towards the crowd. "Come on, you have to get back out there Birthday Boy."

He turned his head and gave me a playful, narrow eyed glare.

I waved him off with a chuckle and checked to make sure that everything was going well.

* * *

Later that night, when almost everybody had left, I walked around the house cleaning things up.

I looked toward the kitchen to see Harry washing the dishes by hand.

I smiled. "Honestly Harry, it's your Birthday, you don't have to stay."

He waved me off. "It's the least I can do."

It was useless to argue with him, so I left Harry to his devices.

We continued tidying up for about half an hour, before I heard Harry scream, "Hermione!"

That couldn't be good. I ran toward the shout and found Harry standing in front of the open pantry. Definitely bad. He looked ready to faint so I grabbed ahold of him before he could.

Inside the pantry, he had found the semi-rotted bodies of failed experiments I hadn't cleaned out earlier that day. All of which had, unwittingly, been Muggle volunteers. Next to the bodies was the Muggle salesman and the Homeless man looking for food, both knocked out and yet to be experimented on.

Harry's mouth kept opening and closing, not able to make any noises come out for a few minutes. "Hermione… what? What is going on?"

I grabbed a conveniently placed vial off the shelf specifically for situations like that. "How else am I going to test my potions in a timely manner? Going through the Ministry would waste precious time."

Before he could react, I tilted his head back and emptied the vial down his still gaping mouth. The effects were almost instantaneous, and I caught Harry before he could hit the ground in a dead faint.

One of the potions I had developed made it so the user would have slight amnesia in the morning, unable to remember some of the night before. It had a similar effect to being blackout drunk. The brain's wish to forget traumatic experiences almost guaranteed that Harry would forget all about this.

There of course would only be a mild headache when he wakes up. I knew this for certain, thanks to all the times I had to use it on Ronald when the smell became bad enough for him to investigate.

I sent off a _Patronus_ telling Ginny that Harry exhausted himself helping, and that he would be sleeping in the guest room.

I levitated Harry to the guest room and went back to the pantry to finish cleaning. I needed to find another place to put my other two guests so that there wouldn't be a repeat performance first thing in the morning.


End file.
